


Treading the Sunlight

by InsertSthMeaningful



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Bisexual Han Solo, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Minor Leia Organa/Han Solo, Polyamory Negotiations, Post-Canon, Sunrises, Trans Luke Skywalker, bannedtogetherbingo2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:48:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27280732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsertSthMeaningful/pseuds/InsertSthMeaningful
Summary: After pulling an all-nighter in celebration of their victory over the Empire, Luke prepares to watch the sunrise from an Endorian balcony. When Han joins him for a chat and a few smiles, some progress in romantic matters is made.
Relationships: Luke Skywalker/Han Solo
Comments: 6
Kudos: 57
Collections: Banned Banned Together Bingo 2020, Banned Together Bingo 2020





	Treading the Sunlight

**Author's Note:**

> *casually considers the Force a religion because of the whole symbolism shtick* This is my fill for the BannedTogetherBingo2020 prompt “Unpopular Religions”.  
> Title borrowed from Amy Lowell’s [Venus Transiens](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/13083/venus-transiens).

Dawn was already greying the skies over the Forest Moon of Endor when Luke Skywalker heard familiar footsteps sidle up to him.

“Hey, kid,” murmured Han Solo in greeting before he leaned against the Ewok balcony’s railing with a huff and put a half-empty cup of… _something_ on the roughly hewn wood next to Luke’s elbow.

“Hey, Han,” Luke gave back, smiling. “Had a long night?”

Han snorted, and his trademark lopsided smirk tugged one corner of his lips upwards. The celebration of their victory over the Empire had indeed carved deep lines into his face – laughter lines, around his eyes and mouth and none on his brow, as Luke found with satisfaction – and he groaned when he rubbed a hand over his mouth. “You could say that, Luke.”

Luke’s grin widened at the mention of his name – a name he had chosen himself, and which fitted who he really was. He was no more that blonde, blue-eyed farm girl from Tatooine. Siths’ Hell, he never had been, not really, and now, with his hair cut short and his bosom tied neatly and flatly to his chest, he was as much of a man as anyone.

“What’re you here for, then? Where’s Leia? Is she already asleep?” he bored on, turning to look at Han and propping his hip up on the balcony rail. “Last I heard she was trying to teach Threepio a traditional Alderaan dance.”

“That would be true.” Han sighed wistfully, and that far-away look he always got when he thought about Leia seeped into his eyes. Sometimes, Luke wished it was the same when Han thought about him. “I left her with the Wookie – Chewie knows how important she is to me, and he’ll look to it that she doesn’t fall out of a treehouse.”

Luke hummed noncommittally and flicked his eyes down to follow the meandering path of a tiny bug over the wood of the railing. Everyone liked Leia – she was pretty and smart and assertive, and there was a certain charm about her which made everybody look twice after her, men and women and even non-humans. And Luke… well, he had gotten better during his training as a Jedi, more confident certainly, but he was still none of those things.

“Hey, kid,” Han said again, softer this time, and something in his tone made Luke look up and meet his jade eyes with bated breath. “Your hand…”

“What about it?” Luke uncrossed his arms to hold the one which had been severed just below the elbow away from his body. In the muted light of dawn, the scarring looked better than it had in a long time. “The mechanism was all mangled from the Emperor’s Force bolts, so I took it off. No use in lugging around a dead piece of wires and cogs, is there?”

Wordlessly, Han reached out and gently cradled the stump of flesh pulled tautly over bone in his hands. Luke’s breath stuttered in his throat.

Han didn’t seem to notice as he studied the scar tissue closely, as though it was a mechanical contraption in and on itself, before he looked up and asked, “You have someone for repairs?”

“Sure.” Luke swallowed once, dryly. “But I’m not in a hurry. The Force is there when I really need–”

“Oh, the _Force_ ,” Han groaned, letting Luke’s arm stump slip from his grasp at once. “Why do you still care for that old dusty religion? The fight’s over, kid, and we can all go back to being farmers and pilots and, I don’t know, _princesses_.”

“But I don’t wanna go back!” Biting down on how much he missed the warmth of Han’s hands on his arm, Luke turned around and looked out over the sea of trees and ferns, the lush leaves shifting this and that way in the slight morning breeze. “I’m a Jedi, Han, and I know there must be more like me out there. Leia already is strong with the Force, anyway, and she says I should keep searching for others… for the ones I can teach, y’know, for the ones who will help me protect and rebuild the galaxy.”

There came an unnerved grunt from his left, but Luke didn’t care to look at Han.

“Sometimes you drive me up the wall, do you know that, Luke?” And there it was again, that certain softness in Han’s voice which Luke had thought he had only imagined the first time around. “The Force… Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen what it can do, but it’s just such an old-fashioned belief, so… _unpopular_ , and I don’t think you’ll find anyone who’ll care to give everything up just to lift cups of tea with his mind and swish a fancy lightsabre around.”

Astonished, Luke turned back around at last. “Just because I want others to feel as empowered as I do doesn’t mean I’ll give up everything else. And the Force is not ‘unpopular’.”

He closed his eyes, focused on the tendrils of power he could feel permeate every living and dead thing around him – and then Han stumbled forwards and only succeeded in keeping Luke and himself from tumbling over the low railing by gripping it tightly to both sides of Luke’s waist.

“Does that feel ‘unpopular’?” demanded Luke, grinning even though he had to crane his neck backwards to look Han in the eye. Standing chest to chest, the space pilot towered a good half head over him.

“Heh.” One corner of his mouth pulled up in a smirk, Han seemed capable of looking everywhere but down at Luke. “No, of course, it doesn’t, and you know it. I was just thinking that if you continue to run around and play Jedi, you’ll always be off on those secret missions or whatever you were doing in the Dagobah system. It’s like you’re always leaving me- _us_. Me and Leia.”

Luke faltered. Were his ears starting to play odd tricks on him? “So it’s not actually my belief that’s bothering you. You just want me to stick around.”

“Look, kid–”

But Luke wasn’t listening. Gripping the rail behind himself with his one hand, bracing himself on the crook of Han’s elbow with the stump of his other arm, he leaned up on his tiptoes and brushed his lips against the corner of Han’s mouth.

It was nothing special. Han’s stubble grated a little, and they had both drunk too much to smell acceptable still, but it was– well, it was something. And Luke liked it.

Then, after he pulled back, Luke saw Han’s gobsmacked face and immediately wished he could take it all back.

“Ah, I– I’m sorry, I shouldn’t’ve done that,” he stuttered, blushing, and made to duck out from under Han’s arms, but the space pilot already had a firm grip on his elbow.

“No, Luke–” Han’s breathing had quickened, and his pupils were blown wide. “It’s… good, but I just thought– I’m already robbing the cradle by being with Leia, and I’m not sure she would be so happy if I– well.” He gestured helplessly between Luke and himself, fingers still wound tightly around Luke’s arm.

The first tendrils of the rising sun were making their way through the canopies above, and Luke flushed an even deeper shade of red at the thought that soon, Han would be able to read in his face like an open book.

“We talked,” he began, unable to lift his eyes from the shined tips of his black leather boots, “and I told her that I had fancied you from the start, just like she did.” There, Han huffed in triumph, and Luke did his best not to glare at the unsuspecting woodworm crawling over the wooden planks by his feet. “And she said that for the time being, it’d be okay if I… made a move.”

“Made a move?” Han’s chuckle permeated the air like the flutter of bird wings. “By demonstrating to me how very much _not_ unpopular the Force is?”

Scowling, Luke tugged at Han’s hold on his elbow. “Look, Han, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing. If you’re going to just laugh about it–”

“Woah, hey, I’m not!” Scrambling to grip Luke’s shoulders, Han looked down at him and said, softer this time, “I’m _really_ not laughing. I just never thought you felt, y’know, the same.”

“Then you’re an oblivious idiot.”

The corners of Han’s eyes crinkled up, all humour and laughs. “Maybe so. And I’d be a liar, too, if I told you I didn’t regret it.”

And then, Han leaned down and pressed his lips to Luke’s in a real kiss this time.

Saying the world slowed around them would have been a lie. Saying the chirping of the waking birds and the rush of the wind in the trees faded to nothing would have been a lie. But saying that Luke’s knees went all weak, in a pleasant way, and that his head was suddenly emptied of all thoughts and anxieties – that would have been to speak the absolute truth.

Back on his tiptoes, Luke slipped his intact arm around Han’s shoulders and moaned softly as their lips slid against each other. Han’s hand sneaked around to squeeze the small of his back and pull him closer until their hips touched, and when they drew back this time, they were both wearing equally goofy smiles.

“Maybe I should tell you more often that the Force is an unpopular religion,” Han conceded and tucked a strand of hair back behind Luke’s ear.

Luke shook his head, though it did nothing to lessen his smile. “And _I_ should prove you wrong more often.”

Somewhere in the undergrowth, a bird began to sing the day awake, and the first tender rays of sunshine sparkled over the horizon, catching in Luke’s blond locks and Han’s laughter lines. Luke’s jaw cracked noisily when he yawned, barely hiding it behind his arm stump. “Agh. Where did you say our sleeping quarters were again?”

Han slipped his arm into Luke’s and hid a yawn himself. “I’ll walk you there and join you. Almost can’t see straight myself.”

And so it came that after a whole day of fighting and a whole night of feasting, Luke Skywalker – the Jedi knight who had helped bring the Empire down once and for all – went to sleep in Han Solo’s arms, exhausted, battered – and happy beyond belief.


End file.
